This application is related to commonly-owned, co-pending applications filed concurrently herewith, entitled:
xe2x80x9cAdvanced Interactive Voice Response Service Nodexe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/073,880;
xe2x80x9cInteractive Voice Response Service Node with Advanced Resource Managementxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/074,142;
xe2x80x9cCommunications Signaling Gateway and System for an Advanced Service Nodexe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/074,072;
xe2x80x9cService Provisioning System for Interactive Voice Response Servicesxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/074,050;
xe2x80x9cCall and Circuit State Machine for a Transaction Control Layer of a Communications Signaling Gatewayxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/073,885; and
xe2x80x9cSystem for Executing Advanced Interactive Voice Response Services Using Service-Independent Building Blocksxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 09/073,887. The above applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
This application is also related to commonly-owned, co-pending applications, previously filed, entitled:
xe2x80x9cRemote Data Gatewayxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 08/796,246, filed Feb. 7, 1997;
xe2x80x9cNetwork Call Parking Managerxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 08/796,839, filed Feb. 7, 1997;
xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Call Park and Transfer in a Telecommunications Networkxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 08/796,840, filed Feb. 7, 1997; and
xe2x80x9cNetwork Information Concentratorxe2x80x9d having application Ser. No. 08/426,256, filed Apr. 21, 1995. The above applications are also incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer telephony, and more particularly to an architecture for providing advanced interactive voice response services to handle calls on a telephone network.
2. Related Art
Call Center Services have become a popular offering of telecommunications service providers. A telecommunications service provider""s customer, which is typically a business, uses one or more call centers to receive and process calls from their existing or potential customers (referred to as xe2x80x9ccallersxe2x80x9d). The telecommunications service provider uses a communications network to deliver calls to call centers while employing various services in the process.
One group of services is known as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) services. It is common for a business to use IVR services in conjunction with call center services. The IVR services may be used to handle a call before routing it to a call center. Other IVR services include automated servicing of callers for customers, caller surveys, telemarketing, and call parking until a call center has an available resource (e.g., a customer service agent). By employing automated IVR services, a customer may reduce the total costs of handling a call and can more efficiently and effectively send a call to an appropriate call center destination.
Special service nodes in the communications network perform IVR services. An IVR service node typically includes of a network audio server that is connected via voice trunks to a bridging switch on a switch network, and an automated call processor that processes customer IVR applications. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical IVR service node systems architecture 100. Bridging switch 102 is connected to an IVR service node 104 via voice trunks. A call processor 106 is a network audio server that provides the telephony interface between the IVR Service Node 104 and the bridging switch 102. A computer processor 108 stores and executes customer application files to service a call. A disk storage 110 is employed to store customer audio files.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional network configuration 200 for providing IVR services. The network configuration 200 includes a switch network 202, one or more IVR service nodes 104 (shown as IVR service nodes 104a-104d) and one or more service control points (SCP) 208. Each IVR service node 104 has access to switch network 202 through its own bridging switch 102 (not shown in FIG. 2). A call originator 206 dials a number and accesses the switch network 202 via an originating switch (not shown). The originating switch issues a query to the SCP 208 to determine where to route the call. Based on one or more criteria selected by the customer, such as the dialed number of a call, Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS), Automatic Number Identification (ANI), time of day, caller-entered digits, geographic point of call origin, etc., the SCP 208 returns to the originating switch a routing address for a particular IVR service node 104. Each IVR service node 104 has little or no interaction with other network components. This results in a limited feature set that telecommunications service providers can offer to their customers.
In accordance with conventional IVR technology, IVR service node 104 is entirely proprietary to a single vendor. The IVR service node 104, which is physically a computing platform, is designed with both hardware and software dedicated to performing certain functions. Its design enables only certain types of applications to be serviced at a particular node. Furthermore, customers are beginning to demand more customized IVR applications that require specialized architectures. This results in network inefficiencies because multiple IVR service nodes 104 are then deployed within a network, each handling different applications. When a call for a particular application is originated, it must be routed to a particular IVR service node 104 irrespective of the node""s load.
As shown in FIG. 2, the total capacity of network configuration 200 needed to handle all simultaneous IVR calls during a peak period must be divided among the multiple IVR service nodes 104 (shown as IVR service nodes 104a-104b). This results in many small trunk groups. In accordance with Erlang theories, dividing alarge-capacity pipe into several small capacity pipes decreases the overall capacity of the network. Furthermore, as traffic demand for IVR services increases, additional IVR service nodes 104 must be added to the network configuration 200. This is because current IVR architectures are not scaleable.
The above described limitations result in low efficiency of current IVR service platforms and limited functionality of communications networks. Therefore, what is needed is a telecommunications network architecture for call center services which uses advanced IVR service nodes to increase efficiency, flexibility as well as reliability.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for a telecommunications network that handles call center calls by providing advanced interactive voice response (IVR) services. The system architecture includes a plurality of next generation service nodes (NGSN) that perform advanced IVR services. The system also includes a plurality of data access points, a signaling gateway, a service creation environment, local support element, database, report server, network information concentrator, host connect gateway, parking manager, virtual call router, and data gateway.
The method includes the steps of receiving a call routing query from the telecommunications network, where the routing query uses a carrier messaging system, processing the routing query to determine a physical routing address and an application identifier based on various criteria, and requesting resources on a NGSN identified by the physical routing address. Once a NGSN resource has been requested, a connection is established between the call and NGSN, and the customer application file is retrieved based on the application identifier and then executed.
One advantage of the present invention is that the network architecture allows customer application files to be executed from any NGSN node thereby increasing network efficiency.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the network architecture provides customers many supporting systems for event record collection, alarm collection, and report generation. Furthermore, these supporting systems allow customers to alter the performance or operation of their applications in near real-time.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the telecommunications architecture allows the NGSN nodes performing the IVR services to communicate with a customer""s host computer located on the customer""s premises. This allows highly flexible and advanced IVR applications to be performed while handling a call center call. Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.